Annual General Meeting - 18 September 1993

Attendees Jeff Bates, Tom Blockeel, Alan Crundwell, Jeff Duckett, Sean Edwards, Rob Gradstein, Nick Hodgetts, Royce Longton, Martha Newton, Brian O'Shea, Roy Perry, Ron Porley, Robin Stevenson, Paul Richards, Martin Wigginton.

The meeting was chaired by the co-ordinator (Brian O'Shea), who also took notes.

The paragraph numbering relates to the items on the agenda.

1. Notes of last meeting There was only one comment on the minutes. Frontier Tanzania (who had requested assistance in identifying specimens) had still not responded to three requests for further information, and the London office of Frontier had agreed to contact the project team leader in Tanzania to see what help if any was required.

2. Action points from last meeting

92/1 Martin Wigginton to produce guidelines on the method of presentation of the flora, and to co-ordinate the word processing of the document. Done - see agenda item 3.
92/2 Brian O'Shea to provide a note for the BBS Bulletin asking for assistance with the typing. Done - see BBS Bulletin 64:34.
92/3 David Long to decide on what further work was necessary on the content. This will be progressed via agenda item 3.
92/4 Royce Longton to co-ordinate the production of a 'glossy' describing the Mulanje expedition. Carried forward - work not started. Royce appealed for photographs that could be used in such a publication.
92/5 Brian O'Shea to write to Dries Touw about the possibility of a joint expedition to Madagascar. Done - see agenda item 5.

3. Estate of E.W. Jones With the assistance of 10 people, Martin Wigginton now has all the text word processed in a 'Microsoft Word for Windows' document, and has subsequently standardised and vetted the text as far as possible, and it is now ready for David Long to start scientific editing. The document was 237 A4 pages, and had been completed a few days prior to the meeting. A copy was being sent to David Long. At least some of the text was more than 5 years old, although much was more recent. A report on what work was still involved would be sought from David Long for the next Newsletter.

There was some discussion about whether or not illustrations were required, and if so, to what standard. It was felt generally that it was extremely important to have illustrations, and the book should not be published without them. There should be one for each plant, including those plants recently illustrated elsewhere, e.g. in Eustace's other publications. Martin Wigginton agreed to check what illustrations are available already, with a view to seeing which may need commissioning. Robin Stevenson offered to redraw any of the existing drawings that needed it.

The method of publication was also discussed. It was suggested that David Long should pursue this, with Royce Longton's assistance if required. Bryophytorum Bibliotheca, the British Council and the UN were all mentioned. The sale of Eustace's bryological books might contribute to the publication funds.

Roy Perry mentioned that he had a large number of Eustace's offprints. It was suggested that these could be distributed to tropical African libraries. Royce Longton and Jeff Duckett agreed to suggest a list for Roy. It was suggested that the British Council may do the distribution for us.

4. Malawi expedition - progress This had been reported in the Newsletter. Since the last Newsletter a further workshop had been held, and the majority of families/genera such as Polytrichaceae, Mniaceae, Sphagnum, Fissidens, Campylopus etc. had been extracted, and were now in the process of identification. The first two papers in the series would be in the next volume of Journal of Bryology. The first taxonomic paper was likely to be on Sphagnum, although Fissidens was also nearing completion. A number of names were suggested of potential 'expert' determiners, and these will be pursued by the individual co-ordinators. Robin Stevenson's recent collections from Malawi would be included with those from 1991 for identification and publication.

5 Future expeditions Brian O'Shea had written to Dr. A. Touw (Leiden) to investigate whether a joint expedition was possible with an EEC grant, and received a positive response. However, it had not been progressed further, and the destination of Madagascar would now be pursued by Royce Longton for 1995.

6. Other Activities

- Checklist of Tropical Hepatics Martin Wigginton had completed a first draft of this document, and was now expecting to co-operate with a student of Tamás Pócs in producing a fuller checklist.
- Checklist of Tropical Mosses Brian O'Shea had completed Africa-2 data, but still had to add Africa-3, based on Gillis Een's data. Over 2500 taxa were already on file. The list included distribution by country.
- Robin Stevenson had completed three translations from the French of tropical bryophyte keys: De Sloover (1987) - Leptodontium; De Sloover (1975) - Breutelia; Vanden Berghen - Frullania. These would be made available as TBG documents.

7. Future direction of TBG Brian O'Shea expressed the concern that very few BBS people still were active in tropical bryology, and that it seemed focused round the Malawi expedition. Looking back at the original discussion document produced by Martin Wigginton in 1988 (TBG document 1), many of the objectives and areas of work identified have in fact been tackled, but the following gaps and other activities were suggested:

- Apart from a rather sketchy first attempt, there was still no list of tropical bryophyte collections in the UK. Brian O'Shea was happy to pass on the information to anyone wishing to have a go at this.
- No research had been done.
- Workshops on particular groups could be organised as a way of familiarising people.
- The TBG should be widened to include Europe.

8. Any Other Business

- It was noted that The Gambia, west Africa was now becoming a cheap package tour location., and provided lowland tropical forest as yet unexamined for bryophytes.
- Roy Perry has a number of unexamined Ugandan specimen at NMW.
- The Species Survival Committee Bryophyte Specialist Group had identified about 50 spp. world-wide as endangered.
- Paul Richard's tropical bryophytes are due to arrive at NMW from MO shortly and are available for identification. It is believed that most are now identified down to genus.

9. Date of next meeting BBS AGM, September 1994.

ACTIONS

92/4 Royce Longton to co-ordinate the production of a 'glossy' describing the Mulanje expedition. Carried forward - work not started. Royce appealed for photographs that could be used in such a publication.
93/1 Brian O'Shea to seek a report on what work was still necessary on the West African Hepatic Flora from David Long for the next Newsletter.
93/2 Martin Wigginton to check what illustrations were still needed for the flora.
93/3 David Long to be asked to pursue the method of publication.
93/4 Royce Longton & Jeff Duckett to supply a list of potential recipients for Eustace Jones' reprints.
93/5 Royce Longton to progress the possibility of an expedition to Madagascar for 1995.

TBG26/TBGAGM93 - 23.09.1993